five kisses and endings
by triffickie
Summary: ..Seeley Booth and Temperance Brennan might've had, but didn't. Damn FFnet's oppressive title length limitations. It's BoothBrennan, of course. Plenty of AU mixed in.


**five kisses and endings seeley booth and temperance brennan could've had, but didn't**  
bones, booth/brennan, pg-13, spoilers for s2, AU as the title suggests. kathy reichs and hart hanson and all those people own, i don't.

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1. "Squints don't solve crimes. Cops do." But she's smiling like she's already cracked the puzzle, as arrogant as she is beautiful and he's both annoyed and turned on. Maybe it's not wise but he does it anyway, his mouth hungry, nearly violent on hers. She's taken aback and could kill him just then, he knows, but she doesn't and that, if anything, is a good thing.

He doesn't really get her like he should, maybe, and she's kind of torn about it, this, sleeping together with him and eventually she tells him she can't do it anymore. He's pissed off and they never work together again but maybe it's for the best, he thinks, even if the sex was fantastic, she was not his type and he was developing all sorts of weird emotions and that, well, that's just never good. Maybe it started the wrong way, he thinks, and tries not to.

2. They met at a diner, as unromantic as it is, she was pretty and he dropped a napkin by accident (no, _really_) and they just got to talking. She was a bit weird, of course, but he had no objection to dating women with intellect, so he asked her out. Just like that. Then it was her time to think he was weird, and she talked about impulses, how she rarely acted on such and he flirted with her ("Maybe now's the time to try.")

He could tell she didn't go along with it immediately but after a few dates, a few drinks (but not too many), and she was pulling him against her, kissing him. It made him feel all kinds of dizzy so he missed some of her science talk, something about animals, sex, he wasn't really sure but it made him feel simultaneously disturbed and hot. Maybe not animalistic, but the sex they ended up having was great, great enough to make him think maybe this could lead somewhere good.

Or maybe not. She dropped him six months later, and he figured it was because they both had their own sets of issues and neither of them had enough time to learn how to handle them, or each other. A shame, but isn't it always?

3. "I can't believe you're marrying Cam."

"I can't believe you kissed me, Bones."

"Blame the alcohol, Booth."

He'd rather not, but has to, like he has to walk down the aisle tomorrow, as he will, because he can't go back on his word. He's not that kind of guy, though he wishes he was as he sees Brennan giggle over her drink, and then get up, getting her coat on.

"I better go home. See you at the wedding."

"I can drive you," he says and despite the beer he's had, his throat feels dry.

"It's okay. I'll take a cab. Take care, bridegroom." She smiles at him and he forces himself to smile back.

It wasn't supposed to end like this.

4. She's 17 and drunk for the first time (and it's odd) and kissing a boy. Russ will kill her when she gets home tonight, unless she manages to be sneaky, maybe she will, who knows. It's all a dare and the people around her and the boy are whistling loudly, it's a nice kiss, a bit too wet and when he tries to slip her the tongue, testing his luck, she pulls back.

"I knew I should've picked truth," she mumbles, a bit self-conscious now as she realizes everybody actually saw that. She doesn't look at the boy (dark hair, dark eyes – cute, older) but knows he's looking at her. Her friend Kathy giggles next to her and she knows they'll have to gossip about it later. That feels odd, all of this is really not her thing, really not her interest.

They leave the party early so that maybe she'll be home before Russ – he works evenings nowadays – and the dark-haired boy is standing outside. As if he doesn't want to be there, either. That's funny, she thinks.

"Hey," he says to her. "What's your name?" He shrugs when she doesn't reply instantly, and she doesn't understand what he means with it. Does he mean he doesn't really care what her name is? She dislikes useless conversation and needs to go home soon and yet his eyes make her want to stay but.

"I have to go now," she says, matter-of-factly.

"Oh." He pauses, looks down, coughs a bit. "Sorry about the tongue."

She doesn't have a reply to that so she just leaves and later Kathy tells her about the boy, his name being "Seeley or something" and how everybody thinks Temperance is a freak for turning him down.

"But he never asked me out," she comments and thinks about what a waste it is to be discussing this. She was drunk, it was one experimental teenage kiss over a silly party game involving dares.

"Oh Tempe. You need to learn how to read between the lines."

Maybe she will. One day.

5. It's Vegas, baby. Pretty hard not to feel that in your, excuse him the expression, bones, all that chinga-ching of metal against metal, coins, victory, and all that booze flowing, fancy drinks, but even better, the high of being on a winning streak. Okay, Seeley, let's calm it, business – job. Work. Maybe that's the wrong with Bones, the real problem with her is that she's so work-related that he wants to shake that out of her and he's getting there, their personal lives slowly melting, mixing into their work conversations and she's so good at getting under his skin. So maybe it's all his own fault that she's in his arms and they're kissing, maybe he can't blame Vegas for it. There's no hesitation anymore, there's frantic search for skin and such _lust_ it scares him, makes him step back. Some people are better than a semi-drunken lay on a work trip (no matter how passionate, no matter how good). Even if some people are dressed to kill, rendering him speechless just to look at her, all he can manage is a throaty, "_Damn_, Bones."

She looks like she's about to smile, but then worry sets in her features, like the ration he drained from her brain with the kiss is slowly setting back in. He doesn't want it. Doesn't know what he wants right now. She's scared, he sees, he's terrified too, and then she says the one thing she's not supposed to. "No."

Yes. Yes. But not like this. But she says the word again, no no no, and leaves his hotel room and takes an earlier flight back to Washington. They meet back there, and work, and talk it out but not so that things will ever be the same again.

----

End notes: I had a lot of fun writing this, especially when I got bunnied for the "they meet as teenagers" though it's totally AU what with Russ and all that. I think Tempe would've been a very interesting teenager, plus I liked the little touch of her having a friend named Kathy who she maybe admires for Kathy's better social skills or something. Plus I like the idea of having B&B be in a totally different life situation but the attraction still being there.

Of course there are things I never tried out, like him being married to Rebecca while meeting Brennan or something like that. Still. Good fun.


End file.
